138 RANUNCULACEAE. 



1. C. demersum L. Stems 2-9 dm. long, leaves 2-3 times forked, 

 the end of the segments capillary and rigid, 8-25 mm. long, fruit 

 oval, 4-6 mm. long, smooth or tuberculate, sometimes winged or 

 with 2 basal spurs on each side. 



In ponds and slow streams, frequent throughout our range. 

 May-July. 



Family 34. RANUNCULACEAE. Crowfoot Family. 



Annual or perennial herbs or rarely climbing shrubs, 

 with alternate or opposite, simple or compound, exstlp- 

 ulate leaves. Flowers regular or Irregular. Sepals 

 3-15, generally caducous, often petal-like. Petals usu- 

 ally of the same number, sometimes wanting. Stamens 

 many, hypogynous, longitudinally dehiscent. Carpels 

 many or rarely solitary, 1-celled, 1-many-ovuled. 

 Ovules anatropous. Fruit achenes, follicles or berries. 

 Endosperm present. 



1. PAEONIA L. Peony. 



Perennial herbs with ternately or pinnately compound 

 leaves and large showy flowers. Sepals 5 or 6, herbaceous 

 and persistent. Petals of the same number, borne with 

 the numerous stamens on a fleshy disk. Style short or 

 none. Follicles 2-5, thick and leathery, several-seeded. 



1. P. brownii Dougl. Glaucous and somewhat fleshy, 20-40 

 cm. high; leaves mostly radical, ternately or biternately divided, 

 the lobes obovate to linear-spatulate; peduncles 2.5-5 cm. long; 

 petals about equaling the sepals, brownish-red; follicles usually 5, 

 broadly oblong, smooth, 2-4 cm. long. 



Occasional in the foothills throughout our range. Jan-March. 



